July Book Thing, Day 2

You know, I knew, going into the first question, that this question was coming. I knew it. But I could not in good conscience tell a lie, so the answer to this question is… well, it’s the same one. Whoops. (How many people who are doing this list have the same problem, do you think?)

So yeah, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe it is. I was in kindergarten at the time, so probably about six, and all I have is a vague memory that I was still sounding out words in picture books, then suddenly the whole thing clicked and I went straight to reading LWW and finished it in like, a week.

That’s not something I talk about a whole lot, though, because, well. It’s embarrassing now? I’m sure you’re sitting there wondering how the deuce going straight from “barely reading” to “read an entire novel in a week” is embarrassing but there’s a reason.

You see, whenever I have shared that anecdote in the past in conversation, whoever I am talking to - a friend, friendly acquaintance, mutual acquaintance of a friend, whoever it is - they also like books and reading. Obviously they do, that is why we’re talking about it in the first place. And I share this little anecdote (which I should add, I used to be quite proud of) and they’re like “oh! yeah! I started reading when I was four!” and then they go into an anecdote about their first novel, at the age of four or whatever, and how they were reading grown-up books by such-and-such an age, and how good at reading they were as kids blah blah etc.

The end result is that I have thoroughly internalized that People Who Read are supposed to start reading well at a Ridiculously Early age, certainly by the time they’re in kindergarten, and that I am somehow Inferior because I didn’t start reading properly until six. Yeah. I miss enjoying telling the story.